Rainforest Loss

Section 1 Lecture

Section 1 00:00:02 TEACHER: There are many plants in this world that people use for medicinal purposes. This is one example. This plant is used in Chinese medicine to treat things like diabetes, malaria, and Hodgkin's disease. Western medicine has started recently, also, utilizing these natural substances. Substances that are isolated from this plant 00:00:22 are now used to treat leukemia. In this section, we're going to talk about rainforests and some things that they offer us. Rainforest Loss, section one. In this section, we'll identify the locations of the world's rainforests. And explain how rainforest resources are utilized throughout the globe. 00:00:40 Looking ahead, we'll evaluate the impact of rainforest loss over the last 100 years and compare and contrast the effectiveness of current rainforest conservation efforts. So we've talked about rainforests in previous lessons. But we're going to go ahead and review this, just a little bit. What defines a rainforest? 00:00:59 Well, rainforests are defined by the amount of rainfall that they receive. They also have a huge amount of biodiversity. 40% to 75% of all species in the world are indigenous to rainforests. There are many natural medicines that occur in rainforests. They are often called jewels of the earth because of this, since there are so many natural medicines there. 00:01:21 The oxygen turnover rate in rainforest is also very high. They don't create oxygen, but they recycle it. They remove the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and replace it with oxygen. 28% the world's oxygen turnover occurs in the rainforest. Now that's not a majority, but it is a very large percentage. So there are two different types of rainforests, which we've also talked about in the past. 00:01:46 The first one is tropical. And the other one is temperate. So let's talk about tropical rainforests first. Tropical rainforests occur near the equator. So if you look at this picture, which we've also looked at in the past, we see that these tropical rainforests are all near the equator of the earth. So places like Southeast Asia, the Philippines, 00:02:06 Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Northeast Australia. Below or south of the Sahara Desert in Africa is the Congo rainforests right here. South America, we've got the Amazon rainforest. Central America and the Pacific Islands, places such as Hawaii. So temperate rainforest, as we should know, are a little bit different. But they do still receive a high amount of rainfall. 00:02:32 But they exist in temperate regions, so a little bit further away from the equator. So if we look at this picture, we will see that locations of these temperate rainforests are little bit further north and south from the equator than the tropical rainforests were. So we see these in places like Australia, New Zealand, Southern Chile, North America-- Pacific Northwest, the Rocky 00:02:55 Mountain trench, and the British Columbia coast. In Europe, there are temperate rainforests in Europe-- the British Isles, the Adriatic Coast, Northwest Spain, and coastal areas of the Eastern Black Sea. We also have them in Asia, Southern China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Russia, and the Far East coast. So what are some of the resources that we get out of a rainforest? 00:03:22 Well, of course, we can get timber, wood from rainforests. We can gather animal products, things like meat and furs. Now some of these furs and meats are not collected in a way that's sustainable. And that's one of the reasons that we're seeing so many animals disappear. They're hunted for their furs and they're traded. They're worth a lot of money. 00:03:42 So we start over-hunting them. People there are relying on rainforest for their survival. So we have plants that derive medicines, and foods and spices-- such as coffee, chocolate-- remember the cocoa that we talked about earlier-- mango and papaya, bananas and avocado, sugar cane and macadamia. All these things originated in the rainforest. So even though we can eat avocados 00:04:07 that are grown in Southern California, they all originated somewhere in the rainforest. All right, so rainforests and anticancer drugs. There are a lot of medicines that we get, these days, from the rainforest, as we mentioned previously. The US National Cancer Institute says there are 3,000 plants that we know of that are active against cancer cells. 00:04:29 Now there are many different types of cancer cells, and so one of these isn't going to be useful for all them. But we do have 3,000 plants that have substances is in them that are active against cancer cells. 70% of these 3,000 are from the rainforests. 25% of active ingredients in cancer-fighting drugs come from exclusive rainforest organisms. So when we do have cancer-fighting drugs that 00:04:52 are created, 25% of the active ingredients in those drugs are from rainforest organisms. So there's one specific substance that I want to talk about, Vincristine. This is the substance that they isolated from that plant that I showed you in the beginning of this section. It's a plant that grows in the rainforest. It's a powerful anticancer drug. 00:05:13 And its use lately has been on people with leukemia, especially acute childhood leukemia. And it has dramatically increased the survival rate of these patients. So thinking ahead to the next section, what are the consequences of our rainforest loss?

Section 2 Lecture

Section 2 00:00:02 TEACHER: There are many plants in this world that people use for medicinal purposes. This is one example. This plant is used in Chinese medicine to treat things like diabetes, malaria, and Hodgkin's disease. Western medicine has started recently, also, utilizing these natural substances. Substances that are isolated from this plant 00:00:22 are now used to treat leukemia. In this section, we're going to talk about rainforests and some things that they offer us. Rainforest Loss, section one. In this section, we'll identify the locations of the world's rainforests. And explain how rainforest resources are utilized throughout the globe. 00:00:40 Looking ahead, we'll evaluate the impact of rainforest loss over the last 100 years and compare and contrast the effectiveness of current rainforest conservation efforts. So we've talked about rainforests in previous lessons. But we're going to go ahead and review this, just a little bit. What defines a rainforest? 00:00:59 Well, rainforests are defined by the amount of rainfall that they receive. They also have a huge amount of biodiversity. 40% to 75% of all species in the world are indigenous to rainforests. There are many natural medicines that occur in rainforests. They are often called jewels of the earth because of this, since there are so many natural medicines there. 00:01:21 The oxygen turnover rate in rainforest is also very high. They don't create oxygen, but they recycle it. They remove the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and replace it with oxygen. 28% the world's oxygen turnover occurs in the rainforest. Now that's not a majority, but it is a very large percentage. So there are two different types of rainforests, which we've also talked about in the past. 00:01:46 The first one is tropical. And the other one is temperate. So let's talk about tropical rainforests first. Tropical rainforests occur near the equator. So if you look at this picture, which we've also looked at in the past, we see that these tropical rainforests are all near the equator of the earth. So places like Southeast Asia, the Philippines, 00:02:06 Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Northeast Australia. Below or south of the Sahara Desert in Africa is the Congo rainforests right here. South America, we've got the Amazon rainforest. Central America and the Pacific Islands, places such as Hawaii. So temperate rainforest, as we should know, are a little bit different. But they do still receive a high amount of rainfall. 00:02:32 But they exist in temperate regions, so a little bit further away from the equator. So if we look at this picture, we will see that locations of these temperate rainforests are little bit further north and south from the equator than the tropical rainforests were. So we see these in places like Australia, New Zealand, Southern Chile, North America-- Pacific Northwest, the Rocky 00:02:55 Mountain trench, and the British Columbia coast. In Europe, there are temperate rainforests in Europe-- the British Isles, the Adriatic Coast, Northwest Spain, and coastal areas of the Eastern Black Sea. We also have them in Asia, Southern China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Russia, and the Far East coast. So what are some of the resources that we get out of a rainforest? 00:03:22 Well, of course, we can get timber, wood from rainforests. We can gather animal products, things like meat and furs. Now some of these furs and meats are not collected in a way that's sustainable. And that's one of the reasons that we're seeing so many animals disappear. They're hunted for their furs and they're traded. They're worth a lot of money. 00:03:42 So we start over-hunting them. People there are relying on rainforest for their survival. So we have plants that derive medicines, and foods and spices-- such as coffee, chocolate-- remember the cocoa that we talked about earlier-- mango and papaya, bananas and avocado, sugar cane and macadamia. All these things originated in the rainforest. So even though we can eat avocados 00:04:07 that are grown in Southern California, they all originated somewhere in the rainforest. All right, so rainforests and anticancer drugs. There are a lot of medicines that we get, these days, from the rainforest, as we mentioned previously. The US National Cancer Institute says there are 3,000 plants that we know of that are active against cancer cells. 00:04:29 Now there are many different types of cancer cells, and so one of these isn't going to be useful for all them. But we do have 3,000 plants that have substances is in them that are active against cancer cells. 70% of these 3,000 are from the rainforests. 25% of active ingredients in cancer-fighting drugs come from exclusive rainforest organisms. So when we do have cancer-fighting drugs that 00:04:52 are created, 25% of the active ingredients in those drugs are from rainforest organisms. So there's one specific substance that I want to talk about, Vincristine. This is the substance that they isolated from that plant that I showed you in the beginning of this section. It's a plant that grows in the rainforest. It's a powerful anticancer drug. 00:05:13 And its use lately has been on people with leukemia, especially acute childhood leukemia. And it has dramatically increased the survival rate of these patients. So thinking ahead to the next section, what are the consequences of our rainforest loss?

Section 3 Lecture

Section 3 00:00:01 TEACHER: This woman is standing next to a coffee plant with coffee beans. Now, these are special coffee beans. They're not really any different than normal coffee beans, except for the fact that these are Rainforest Alliance certified coffee beans. Well, what does that mean? We're going to talk about that in this section. 00:00:19 Rainforest loss, section 2. We've already identified the location of the world's rainforests and explained how rainforest resources are utilized throughout the globe. And now we're going to evaluate the impact of rainforest loss over the last 100 years and compare and contrast the effectiveness of current rainforest conservation efforts. 00:00:38 So what is rainforest deforestation doing to the world? How is it harming our situation? Well, we're losing 50,000 species every year-- 50,000 species. Now, I'm not just saying they kind of get up and leave for a while, go someplace else in the world. They are becoming extinct. 00:00:53 We are losing these species forever. More than half of the world's estimated 10 million species of plants, animals, and insects live in the tropical rainforests. So that's a huge loss of biodiversity. We could lose half of the world's species with the destruction of the rainforests. That's a pretty big danger. 00:01:14 So plants, animals, and insects are being lost because of this deforestation. This works out to be 137 species every day. Now, does that mean today, exactly, we are going to lose 137 species? Not necessarily. We may lose more, we may lose less. This is an average. 00:01:32 Losing 50,000 every year works out to be 137 species every day that are gone forever. So with this loss of species, we are losing possible cures for disease. We talked about how 25% of Western medicines come from the rainforest, or substances in our Western medicines come from the rainforest. So with the loss of all these plants, 00:01:55 we don't know what we're losing. We haven't even explored the entire rainforest. Less than 1% of the rainforest has been tested for medicinal value. We have no idea what we're possibly losing. Maybe we're losing a cure for cancer or any of the other diseases that are plaguing our society today. 00:02:15 So we're also losing indigenous tribes. This is a huge loss of knowledge. Since the year 1900, we've lost 90 tribes. All of the knowledge that they have gained from living in the rainforest for thousands of years, the knowledge about what plants are good for medicinal uses, what plants aren't good, all of that knowledge has been lost forever. 00:02:35 So by maintaining these forests, we can try to keep around the few indigenous tribes that are left to try to absorb the knowledge that they have. It also contributes to global warming. We talked about how trees are a huge sink, forests are a carbon sink that collects carbon. So by cutting down these forests, we're removing the Earth's ability 00:02:56 to remove carbon from the atmosphere naturally. Additionally, by burning these forests, we're releasing more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. So it enhances the greenhouse effects and causes more carbon dioxide emissions. It also affects the water cycle. We have reduced water in the soil, groundwater, and the atmosphere because of the loss of these rainforests 00:03:17 and the loss of the transpiration that occurs from the rainforests. This loss of vegetation causes erosion, flooding, and landslides. So what have we done or what are we doing to conserve our rainforests? Well, ecotourism is a huge part of conserving our rainforests. We want to take these people who are using 00:03:39 the rainforest for their livelihood and change the way they use it. You see, these people aren't bad people. They're burning down the rainforest because it's the only way that they know how to make a living. They're just trying to feed their families and support themselves. So the only way they know how do this 00:03:53 is by burning the rainforest down and raising cattle or maybe growing crops. But as we know, this soil isn't good for that type of thing. The crops only last a couple of years. And then we don't have any growth left in that soil. It uses up all the nutrients. So we have to teach these people different ways of using their land. 00:04:13 Ecotourism is one way that they can use the rainforest instead of exploiting it. So we can take people on tours and educate them about the rainforest, teach them about this very important ecosystem. We can also rehabilitate them and rebuild these forests. This is the most direct method of combating deforestation. Some countries are involved in what's 00:04:38 called the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol has set forth regulations that countries must reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide by 5%, the 1990 levels, before 2012. By completing things like this, they are given carbon credits for the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. So countries receive these credits 00:05:00 through conservation and restoration. This makes it economically beneficial for them to conserve these rainforests. So we can promote and manage products that are produced from the rainforest in a sustainable manner. So we want to harvest our sources sustainably so they're not going to run out. 00:05:21 So things like medicinal plants, fruits, nuts, and oils, we should concentrate on collecting these and using these, rather than burning the forests down to use for things like grazing cattle. So this creates a new source of income for these people. There are economic alternatives to cutting forests down for timber and for grazing cattle. It's estimated that if a farmer were 00:05:42 to cut down an acre of land in the rainforest, sell all the wood, and graze cattle on it, they're going to make about $460 from that acre of land. That's not very much. But if they use different alternatives, growing things or collecting things that naturally grow in the rainforest, using these different ways of using the forests to make money, they can make $2,400 per acre. 00:06:06 That's a much better number, a much better way of using the forests in a more efficient manner. So we can promote and purchase rainforest products that are Rainforest Alliance certified. And we're going to talk about that in just a second. So what this does is it gives a competitive advantage to these companies and allows them to compete with other companies while doing things 00:06:28 in a sustainable manner. So we talked about products that are Rainforest Alliance certified. Well, if you go to a store and you see this seal on the product, it means it was harvested in a sustainable manner from the rainforest. So what are the goals of this Rainforest Alliance? 00:06:48 To conserve biodiversity; to transform practices, land use, and businesses in the rainforest; to sustain the livelihood of the rainforest people. As we mentioned, these people aren't bad. They just need to be taught how to use the rainforest in a sustainable manner. Rainforest Alliance divisions consist of forestry, which encourages better ground practices; 00:07:09 agriculture, which encourages biodiversity conservation; and tourism, which conserves, contributes, and improves finances of those areas. Now, this is not a governmental organization. This is a nongovernmental organization that works to save the rainforest. So I'd say, once again, we've accomplished our mission. We talked about tropical and temperate rainforests, 00:07:32 their definition and locations in the world. We talked about resources that we get from the rainforest, things like timber, animal products, medicines, foods, and spices. We talked about rainforest deforestation, how we're losing species, biodiversity, possible disease cures, and indigenous tribes full of knowledge; how it also affects global warming and the water cycle. 00:07:52 We talked about rainforest conservation, how things like ecotourism, rehabilitation, carbon credits, promotion, and management can help to save them.